Canada suffers first loss against Finland, Czechs and Necas remain unbeaten

Nathan MacKinnon had a chance to deliver the overtime winner, but was denied.

Down goes Canada.

Canada suffered its first loss of the IIHF World Hockey Championship on Monday when Eeli Tolvanen scored the shootout winner to give Finland a 2-1 victory.

The Finns improved to 4-1-0-1 in the tournament, while Canada dropped to 5-0-1.

Canada dominated puck possession, but it didn’t matter in the end, as Juuse Saros was outstanding in the net, stopping 37 of 38 shots. The 30-year-old Saros is the current starting netminder for the Nashville Predators.

Marc-Andre Fleury, allegedly now retired from NHL competition, stopped 19 of 20 shots for Canada.

The Canadians entered the game at 5-0, having outscored their adversaries 28-2 in those previous games. But this time, they fought someone their own size and came out on the losing end. The Finns didn’t come into the highly-anticipated match with an unblemished record, but they had a similar success rate against other teams. Before losing to co-host Sweden, they had outscored their opposition 18-8 before squaring off against Canada.

Despite being outplayed for the first two periods and playing one score down on the scoreboard due to a Ryan O’Reilly shorthanded goal, the Finns became stronger in the third. Just over seven minutes into the frame, Patrik Puistola tipped Nikolas Matinpalo’s point shot in front of the net and whacked it by Fleury to tie the game at 1. From that point forward, Canada dictated the pace for the remainder of regulation, but were unable to score.

Overtime and Shootout

While both teams had a few chances in the overtime period, Canada had the best opportunity to put the game away when Nathan MacKinnon went on a breakaway, but he was stoned cold by Saros.

MacKinnon got another shot in the skills competition but missed and Tolvanen scored in the shootout to give the win to Finland.

Next Game

Despite the loss, Canada remains ahead of Finland in the standings. The Canadians are the No. 2-ranked team, while the Finns remain in third. Canada will take on the No.1-rated Sweden Tuesday to finish out the preliminary round. The game starts at 12:20 p.m. local time.

Necas scores two points in Czech win over Germany

The Czech Republic destroyed Germany in a 5-0 smacking to remain undefeated in the tournament. Captain Roman Cervenka, who netted a hat trick in his 100th World Championship game appearance against Kazakhstan, had two assists along with Martin Nečas. Including this slick set-up on the fifth goal from the Colorado Avalanche forward. It is also interesting to note that Nečas was playing as the second line center in the win.

The Czechs return to the ice on Tuesday against the United States. Puck drop is at 8:20 a.m. local time.